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Microsoft's Software Philanthropy: The Goodwill Ploy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the first-one's-free dept.

bethanie writes "The New York Times has printed a story concerning Microsoft's plans to 'significantly increase its donation of software to the nation's nonprofit organizations, to a level that may approach $1 billion annually in the next three to four years. ...But the increase has also drawn objections from developers of 'open source' programs (programs for which the source code is freely distributed). Those critics say they believe Microsoft is using a giveaway strategy to undercut the so-called free software movement in the potentially promising nonprofit market.' What do you think? Is it true philanthropy or just another tactic to assimilate everyone into the MS collective?"

3 of 602 comments (clear)

  1. Shut the fuck up. by tomstdenis · · Score: 0, Troll

    Nobody is forcing people to use MS. Now MS is just playing level. They give their shit out [or at extreme cut] it means OSS has to be *that much better* to win over users.

    Is that not competition?

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    1. Re:Shut the fuck up. by tomstdenis · · Score: 1, Troll

      Speaking as someone who has used both Linux (RH 7/8, Gentoo) and Windows I have to say I prefer Windows to Linux for the sole reason that

      a) stuff works quicker in windows. Sure you can configure Linux up the wazoo but often you have to actually edit text files for various things...e.g. to load say a bttv module you have to edit a resource file in the /etc/ dir...

      b) tons of shit for windows exists. Including OSS/GNU based software [which I use daily]

      c) Games.

      d) When it boils down to it Windows [when updated properly] is really not that bad of an OS.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
  2. Re:In other words.... by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 0, Troll

    ME came out how many years ago? Windows Server 2003 is crushing Linux in the majority of tests. Yes, the non-biased ones.

    Next.

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."